Similarly, I often forget to like episodes of comics I follow.
Makes me think that there may be others that have read my comics and due to forgetfulness, or not having an account, don't interact with the upload but still are huge fans!
Very heartbreaking because I'm rebooting and I've been bad at sharing my feelings on why I'm doing so, but sometimes we are just so into the dopamine of numbers, that forget that they don't show the whole picture.
same here! I often forget to like an episode because I'm busy reading and enjoying the comic. And if you're rebooting, I'm sure people who are fans of your work will check it out if you let them know!
For me, I released my first episode early on my website, not expecting anyone to actually see it, only to find that a person who I never knew kept up with my work messaged me to tell me how excited they were for my comic.
It just made me realise that a lot of people who really care for your work can often be silent about it as well, doesn't make them any less of a fan.
Yeah, it happens!
I also noticed that I read but don't like and comment, so I try hard to do it. I am very introvert, but my reasoning was 'I do like when people comment and like. I should show some appreciation too'.
The hardest sometimes its to answer a comment xD. As english is not my first tongue, and also is not for another users, its like traducing hieroglyphs when we both try to communicate in an lenguage that is not our own n_nU
i don't usually forget to like unless the site i'm on is glitchy but commenting is always 50/50 coz either i don't know what to say or someone else said what i was thinking better. it's like mega rare for me to actually comment myself plus there's just the anxiety around it
i think the only time i ever "comment" on things would be like...tags on tumblr otherwise i'll just like and retweet/reblog but that's about it (or bookmark/fave if i really like it and wanna come back to it)
I am absolutely guilty of not liking, commenting or even sometimes subscribing to comics I really like! (though I don't really feel bad about it if the comic is really popular already XD)
Clearly there are times where I have nothing to say, but for me at least, there's also the matter of being afraid to 'reveal favouritism'; say if you're friends with a few other creators but you like some of their stories more than others, and then it's kind of scary to say stuff about one person's work because the other person will know you don't like their work when you don't say stuff about their work. idk how people usually deal with this situation :'D
Hm...I don't mean to be a downer, but I don't know if that's as comforting a thought as you might think it is...at least not for everyone.
The idea that people whose existences I will never be aware of might be genuinely enjoying my work honestly doesn't do that much for me, because...I mean...I'm not aware of them. =/ Any measure of satisfaction that they might have, from my perspective, exists purely in my imagination. I might as well consider all the people who hate my work that I'm not aware of; it amounts to the same thing.
And in general: the people who are most concerned about getting comments are usually the people who rarely get any. And it feels a little insensitive to go 'oh, but think about all the people who could love your work but never tell you'...it's like telling someone who's lonely to think about all the people who could like them but never tell them. =/ Doesn't help much. I think most people would rather hear that they/their actions are appreciated, not just that they 'might' be.
I don't mean to shame anyone who doesn't want to comment or can't remember to, but instead of saying stuff like this, I would much rather encourage them to...actually try to do it sometime. Like, nice comments are good things; there's a reason people want to receive them!
Words of encouragement are the simplest, cheapest, and easiest way to make a real positive impact on an artist and support them on their journey. Years from now, they probably won't remember how many views or likes they got, but they'll remember the kind things people said about their work. Why wouldn't you want to be a part of that? Even just once?? I don't think it's too much to ask to give such a small gift in thanks for something you supposedly 'absolutely adore'.
I just think it's this mindset that leads to situations like, when an artist has decided they've had enough of a certain project and they're thinking of quitting, and all of a sudden their once-silent fans come crawling out of the woodwork to say "NO PLEASE DON'T GO WE LOVE YOU" (something that's happened to me on more than one occasion...).
And it's just like...too little, too late, my dudes. =/ Maybe if they had known their work was so dearly beloved WHILE they were doing it, they wouldn't have wanted to quit. As it stands, preparing things for a public audience to look at takes work...work that may not feel worthwhile when you have no idea whether that audience is interested, or if they're even really there.
Definitely.
I love this comic "5 Elementos" and only until now I've been liking and interacting with the creator's accounts because, well, my parents feared the internet back when I was a kid, and I didn't have any facebook/twitter because of it.
Feels surreal to do now, to be honest.
Not that the internet is the safest, and google and facebook taking all our information to show us ads is quite concerning, but there's definitely some stigma.
I agree with this sentiment as well because it's absolutely true that engaging with material is what helps to keep it going but i also believe tha external validation cant be an only motivator. with regards to things like monetization and publishing and other big stuff engagement will absolutely be necessary but it's a matter of striking the balance with other things overall i think
like in some places it genuinely does feel difficult to engage and so for those reasons i stay quiet but i try to make up for it in other ways like sharing online or via word of mouth. if it's an instance where i feel capable of interacting then i will but also i worry about the mindset that people ought to feel obligated to engage because yes it's very good for creators and creatives but some folks really struggle and those things have to be taken into consideration, hence balance
That's something I honestly don't get tbh ... If feeling like no-one loves your work is the reason why you wanted to quit, then wouldn't realizing that your work is loved make you no longer want to quit? There must be something else there that makes you still want to quit. Maybe you were hoping for more consistent engagement. Maybe you actually don't want to quit now, but feel the need to commit to your decision so that people don't accuse you of threatening to quit for attention (that sucks, please don't ever accuse anyone of threatening to quit for attention). Maybe it's something else entirely.
Simple and cheap perhaps, but it's most definitely not the easiest way to make an impact, at least if you want your comment to be the kind that the author remembers, the kind that isn't just a glorified like. Even if you 'absolutely adore' something, it doesn't mean it's easy to explain why.
I do agree though that it absolutely is insensitive if it's framed as 'oh, but people can love your work but never tell you, so stop complaining about how people aren't showing you enough love'. You're allowed to want recognition for your hard work.
(Replying to both you and @DokiDokiTsuna )
I get both sides of the argument, and you both bring up great points.
This post wasn't meant to come off as 'don't complain about lack of engagement,' because it's completely valid to feel frustrated that people aren't commenting or visibly interacting with you work.
I feel there needs to be a balance of your own drive to make your comic, as well as being excited to share it to other people. It can be pretty hard to spend hours working on something only to get little attention. I've been through it on social media, as it's hard to build a following.
However, if I focused on that, I wouldn't have continued making art. For me knowing that there are people who appreciate my work even if they're not always directly saying so is a positive thing, but I get why people don't see it that way.
I think these people become more vocal because they feel like saying something will stop the project they like from ending. Yes, it sucks that they don't always interact, but that's just the way some people consume content they love.
I advocate for letting smaller creators know that their work is appreciated, which is why I'm much more likely to comment on a comic with a smaller following as I know the comment could mean a lot to the creator. With larger comics, I'm much more likely to get drowned out by other comments.
This post was really just supposed to remind people that there are likely more people who like their work then they think (whether this is helpful or not depends)
I was mainly speaking from personal experience, as few people who I rarely see commenting have told me they've kept up with work for years, which caught me by surprise. Ofc not everyone will let you know, but they exist.
I don't know what the conclusion to all this is, but it's complicated, I guess.
Sometimes I just don’t know what to comment, but I do usually like an episode (to let the creator know I read and enjoyed it).
I read the other comments posted too, and someone’s usually said/asked what I would have written anyway. 
I was hooked by a canvas webtoon that was made in august '21 the concept was really nice and the characters are charismatic the creator was one of my followers and she'd DM me to review her comic, sadly she's really busy with her own life problems and stopped publishing.
Never commented on her webtoon page but I did let her know that I support her and that I've got crazy over her characters
Hope this helps someone
That's a good question, and the reasoning you brought up definitely applies in a lot of cases...but I think one that you overlooked is that, for everyone to come in and tell you they like your work at the last possible second just feels...insincere.
Like, you had all these chances to say something. There were probably instances where I asked for your opinions and feedback, or tried to do things based on what you wanted; you, the audience that I genuinely wanted to entertain at one point or another. In the context of a story, there were probably big important events and shocking twists and revelations that I thought you might have some reaction to.
And I got...crickets. For all I knew, you just didn't care.
But NOW that all of a sudden your art-machine is leaving, the content stream is about to be cut off, NOW you care. None of my decisions were worth your commentary EXCEPT my decision to stop entertaining you.
The situation itself is almost dehumanizing, and after all the hurt you felt working on your art and feeling like no one actually wanted it, for many it could be the last straw. Like, it'd probably be healthier to put the whole thing behind you and move on, whether these people mean what they're saying or not.
To give a real-life example: I still remember that thread I made where I said I wasn't going to post novels on Tapas anymore. I was all depressed and I vented all my frustrations...and as if by magic, people started searching out my most recent novel and giving it likes and subs. As in, I never gave them any links: they went to Tapas and looked it up of their own free will, just to support me in my hour of sadness. Not even previously-silent fans, people I didn't even know, who had probably never read any of my work before!
And at the time I just...laughed (and deleted the novel anyway). ^^ If I were younger, I would have thought this was a sign I shouldn't quit; that maybe I could use these pity subs to build a 'real' audience. But I'm old, I've been through it before, and I know it wouldn't have been worth it.
I'd always know why they were there. And they'd probably always know why they came: because I was sad and they wanted me to not be sad. That's not the same as liking someone's work...no one wants to follow someone out of guilt or obligation; even if you genuinely want to like what they're doing, there's always this pressure that you HAVE to, or else you'll be letting them down.
Is that what you want, as an artist? An audience who stays only because they feel it would be rude to leave...? I think it's just as bad, if not worse, than having no audience...which you'll eventually end up with, as these people mature and realize they don't owe someone their continued attention just because they were sad one time. It's just a bad deal for everyone involved.
I get that: sometimes it's hard to construct a comment that says what you really want it to say. But if you think it's important, you can always...work at it. A little? Plan out what you want to say, look at other nice comments that you think were written well? Something...?
Like, if it's worth doing, it's worth the effort....and in all honesty, this shouldn't take much effort. Writing a comment isn't like writing a book; it doesn't have to be amazing to make the recipient feel good about reading it. It can be something as simple as telling them one thing you liked about what they did, or how much you've been looking forward to it.
If anyone wants advice, I could start a thread about writing comments. ^^; I'm not trying to be mean, but...it ain't rocket science, dudes. With a few pointers and some practice, there's no reason you should be incapable of saying something nice to an artist when you want to.
Ah, gotcha. Yeah, in that situation I would probably also feel like I'm only getting 'pity subs' and that they're not genuinely interested in my work. I think I was confused because you've described two very different situations here, which is clear now that you've spelled it out but seemed to be kind of lumped together in your previous comment:
I wouldn't want the second kind of last minute attention either; I don't want 'an audience who stays only because they feel it would be rude to leave'. But the first kind, I honestly don't mind. I don't mind being seen as some abstract entity that churns out content, and that works for me because I've set a precedent for having inconsistent uploads from the very start so people won't feel entitled to a certain level of output. If people like my stuff, I'm happy, even if they don't care about me as a person. But I guess I may have been a little insensitive to people who do care, and dismissive of their feelings of being dehumanized, which are very valid.
I guess I was being a bit hyperbolic; I didn't mean to say that writing comments is an incredibly difficult thing that takes herculean effort. What I meant was that I think you were also being a little hyperbolic; I don't think leaving a comment is 'the easiest way to make a real positive impact on an artist and support them on their journey'. It's does take some work, like you said. It's certainly harder than a rich person getting their computer to throw a couple of bucks at you every month.
As for a thread about writing comments, I won't deny that I'll probably find it helpful, but I might not end up commenting on it ... so ... uhhhhh .... XD
How hard is it to write 3-word novels such as:
"I loved this."
"Best episode yet."
"More please, thanks!"
"Broke my heart."
"I'm not crying."
"Feels so real."
Sure, they're not much but they're comments. On a platform like this, it's never 100% that "a view" is actually "a read" or that "a read" means they enjoyed it. But a comment is pretty sure evidence its writer was engaged.
Those are basically glorified likes. A like is also equally evident of an engaged reader.
I guess these at least specify the kind of emotion the comic evoked in you. But now I'm imagining myself commenting these word for word on every comic that makes me feel this way (because there are only so many ways you can write "Broke my heart" in 3 words), and then the authors realise I'm commenting the same things on other comics and feel like I'm being ingenuine. That's admittedly an unlikely scenario though; maybe I just need to be less paranoid :'D
.. I comment very few times. BUT I almost always leave likes 